The Eighty Dollar Champion Book Review

The Short Version: This book tells the
Cinderella-like story of the horse Snowman and his owner Harry deLeyer. Snowman
was on a truck bound for the slaughterhouse when Harry purchased him, and
together the former work horse and the unknown riding instructor rose to the
pinnacle of American show jumping success.

Review By:
CowboyWay.com

Disclosure: Here at CowboyWay.com we purchased
"The Eighty Dollar" with our own money. The opinions expressed here are
our own.

Below: Book cover of "The Eighty Dollar Champion" by
Elizabeth Letts

Review

This book chronicles the true story of Snowman, a flea-bitten gray horse
who, in 1956, was probably a work horse who had lost his job to
mechanization. He was sold at auction and loaded onto a truck bound for
slaughter. But at the last minute an unknown riding instructor for an
all-girls school purchased the horse off the slaughterhouse truck for a
total of $80.00, including delivery.
Snowman was acquired on the outside
chance he would make a lesson horse for the girls - and he did - but when a
deeply hidden, exceptional talent for jumping was discovered in the
gentle-hearted horse he ultimately carried himself and the dreams of his new
owner to the pinnacles of American show-jumping success.

Snowman and his new owner, Harry de Leyer, were an unlikely pair whose
seemingly impossible success keeps the reader cheering for them all through
the book. After Harry broke Snowman to ride the easy-going horse seemed to
show no interest in jumping. If it hadn't been for a humorous dare by one of
the barn hands at the school Harry may never have unlocked the puzzle to
Snowman's exceptional ability. But one day one of the barn hands teasingly
asked Harry if he was going to jump that plow-horse over one of the "big
jumps" in the arena. The book doesn't specify how tall the "big jump" was,
but mentions it was taller than three-feet.

On that day, just for fun with a friendly audience, Harry aimed Snowman
for a jump bigger than anything they had ever tried. And...Snowman flew.
Apparently, if you were going to make it interesting, Snowman was all in.
Harry slowly took the horse over taller and taller jumps that day, ending
with clearing a six-feet, six-inches jump with apparent ease.

From that point forward the book details Snowman and Harry's brief but
spectacularly successful five-year show jumping career. Snowman remained his
laid-back self, often giving lessons to riders at the girls school or happy
rides to the de Leyer children between show jumping wins. His and Harry's
stories were both unlikely ones to achieve such incredible success and they
became media favorites. Harry, an immigrant from Holland whose show jumping
dreams had been dashed by the Nazi occupation of his homeland during World
War II, became lovingly known as the Flying Dutchman. Snowman, the former
workhorse purchased with collar marks rubbed into his hair from working in
harness, became endeared to America as Harry's quiet, gentle-hearted wings.

The book is a medium-paced read, occasionally pausing in the story of
Snowman to describe Harry de Leyer's immigration to America from his
war-torn homeland, the state of the plummeting horse population in 1950s
America, and to give the reader a small look inside the world of show
jumping during Snowman's era. The information is interesting and gives the
reader a better understanding of the forces at work behind the scenes in
Snowman's life.

The book often tugs at your heart strings, but for all happy reasons. It
is an improbable, you've-got-to-be-kidding true story that keeps you turning the
pages from the beginning to the peaceful ending of Snowman's quiet passing
from this life. The final passages about Snowman's last moments, humanely
euthanized at an old age with Harry at his side, may put a lump in your
throat or a tear in your eye, but they are brief and emphasize how much
"Snowy" was loved and cared for.

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